Pumpkin Patch

Show us your pumpkin patch.

Dave got his degree in agriculture so when it comes to growing a garden, he's a pro! I have missed our gardens the last few years. He's been gone... to Afghanistan, and recently to Germany. I'm counting the days for his return in November. He retires after 30 years of military service. Yay!

I'm already scheming and planning for next year's garden, complete with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, zucchini, crookneck, and pumpkins. 

My pumpkin patch won't be any old ordinary pumpkin patch! We will grow moon-size pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, sugar pie's for eating, jack-be-little's for decorating, turbins and gourds for entertaining. Oh... I can't wait!

This year we had to settle for a pumpkin patch experience at Black Island Farms. A large pumpkin farm devoted to kids age 0 to 99! For F.H.E. (family home evening), my youngest daughter's family and I spent an evening playing in the court yard equipped with slides shooting off haystacks, a shooting corn cannon, a haystack fort with tunnels, and a bouncy house. There were farm animals, a pig chase, face painting, magic show, and kettle corn for eating. Pint-size barrels, connected together to form a train and pulled by a tractor through the corn fields, was a big hit in the court yard. 

Black Island Farms is host to the largest corn maze in the state of Utah. There were three entrances. We chose path 1, hoping that mean't the easiest. Not! But we clever adults paid close attention to the twists and turns we took as we let the little ones lead the way by the light of the moon. The kiddos had their fill in about 20 minutes and we were able to find the entrance in no time. Fun, fun, fun!

The wagon ride to the pumpkin patch was the most anticipated event of the entire evening. We sat at the front of the wagon, just behind the tractor pulling the wagon. We bounced through furrows and drove down garden dirt roads lit by only the light of the moon. We passed large open fields of pumpkins... and finally came to a stop. The tractor driver directed us to a particular patch and asked us to raise our hands when we found our perfect pumpkin and he would come and cut it off the vine, thus preserving the stem. 

It didn't take long for the little munchkins to find their perfect pumpkin. All hands went up simultaneously! My joy was in watching the little ones in the pumpkin patch. We had so much fun, we'll do it again next year! And they'll get to come to grandma's pumpkin patch, too!